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When Real Estate Disposition rebranded itself as Auction.com in 2011, the company identified and led a migration of distressed property auctions online.
Since then, the company has grown by leaps and bounds, expanding its distressed property auction business, in both residential and commercial sales, and recently became a desired portal for traditional real estate sales as well.
As part of that expansion, Auction.com is moving beyond auctions and rebranding as Ten-X, which the company says represents its transition into an “online marketplace where buyers, sellers, and the agents and brokers who represent them can easily and efficiently buy and sell high quality residential and commercial real estate.”
The company announced the rebranding efforts Monday morning.
Ten-X CEO Tim Morse said the transition from Auction.com to Tex-X marks the introduction of the “future of real estate.”
As part of the Ten-X rebranding, the company also announced plans to introduce new transaction platforms in March that will give sellers the option of choosing to conduct their transaction using an online auction or a more traditional non-auction process online.
According to data provided by the company, its platforms have facilitated the sales of over 200,000 residential and commercial properties totaling over $35 billion since 2007.
The company said that over 60% of the commercial properties brought to sale in 2015 were “traditional, high quality assets,” including an office complex in Manhattan Beach, Calif., that sold for $96 million – the largest online transaction ever.
Given those statistics, the transition beyond the name Auction.com is about more than just changing the name of the company, Morse said.
“Today's announcement represents something far more significant than a name change,” Morse said.
“Our move to the Ten-X brand reflects our evolution into a marketplace for a much broader range of residential and commercial property types, and our expansion into new technology solutions that empower buyers, sellers and real estate professionals alike,” Morse continued. “Our vision is to make buying and selling real estate ten times better for everyone involved.”
Morse said that under the new Ten-X brand, the company will feature three transaction platforms: Ten-X Commercial; Ten-X Homes, which will feature traditional, move-in ready residential properties; and Auction.com, which will continue to feature properties for residential real estate investors.
Auction.com has been undergoing a series of changes and expansions since receiving a $50 million investment from Google Capital in March 2014.
Since then, Auction.com has brought in several senior executives with extensive experience with some of the web’s biggest players, including Yahoo, eBay and LinkedIn.
Morse joined Auction.com in June 2015, after serving as chief financial officer and interim CEO at Yahoo.
Morse said that Ten-X will launch and demonstrate its new commercial and residential platforms, which will feature both auctions and more traditional transaction options, in March at the South by Southwest Interactive Festival in Austin, Texas.
Morse said that the new platforms will be optimized for use on desktop, tablet and smartphones, to meet the shifting demands of today’s tech-savvy buyers and sellers.
“We believe that, increasingly, people buying real estate want to be able to buy property whenever they want, wherever they happen to be, and on whatever type of computing device they're using, and we plan to meet those requirements,” Morse said.
Morse said that Ten-X Commercial will launch as a national platform, while Ten-X Homes will have a “national footprint,” but focus early on four launch markets – Dallas, Denver, Miami and Phoenix.
“As real estate moves online, we are committed to providing buyers, sellers and real estate professionals more of what they need to transact successfully,” Morse said. “Ten-X offers a proven platform, a simplified process, and the information and tools that allow everyone to confidently buy and sell real estate online.”
